Review: ‘Island of Lost Souls’

With such actors as Charles Laughton, Richard Arlen and Bela Lugosi in the cast, Souls is provided with a mainstay.

With such actors as Charles Laughton, Richard Arlen and Bela Lugosi in the cast, Souls is provided with a mainstay.

While the action is not designed to appeal to other than the credulous, there are undoubtedly some horror sequences which are unrivaled. Those studies of a galaxy of Dr Moreau’s 50-50 man and beast creations, as an example, will pique any type of mentality.

The tramp steamer in a fog, its decks laden with crates of wild animals consigned to Moreau’s mysterious island, is good picturization.

Romance is essentially light, and with a story of this kind [by H. G. Wells] it should be. The extra billing given Kathleen Burke as Lota, the Panther Woman, is strictly for the marquee. Girl is too much like a girl to even suggest transformation from a beast.